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REVIEWED: Shakespeare and laughter by Indira Ghose

“Indira Ghose’s adroit, engaging study begins with a moment of consternation. When invited by a newspaper to nominate the “funniest Brit of all time”, the nation chose not Shakespeare but Eric Morecambe – and by a landslide. How could this be? For intelligent, reflective adults (or Daily Mirror readers, at least) to think more highly of the man who gave us “You can’t see the join!” than the creator of Twelfth Night suggests misprision. But, as Ghose implies, the choice is hardly surprising. Laughter is a communal affair. We laugh more readily when in company than alone, and most of all when the source of the humour is present; and we do so as much to signal our willingness to share the fun as we do at anything intrinsically ‘funny’. ”